Paradox
by RavenclawCookie
Summary: What if things had changed on that famous Saturday, when five students of different backgrounds had come together as one? What if Andrew had ended up with Claire instead of Allison? Will she be able to declare her feelings for him? And how will this affect Bender's longing for the pristine-girl, Claire?


_Hey guys!_

_So here's another Breakfast Club fanfic I wrote! I hope you enjoy reading it!_

_As always, I do not own any of the characters in the Breakfast Club, nor do I claim to own them._

_Enjoy!_

_RavenclawCookie_

* * *

Allison Reynolds felt her stomach constrict in a pang of fiery jealousy as she fled through the gates of Shermer High School that bizarre Saturday afternoon, the bag she had crammed with miscellaneous junk slung over her shoulder. Her auburn eyes found the pair standing beside the entrance, their lips linked in a perfect kiss. She watched with envy as Andrew Clark moved his hand and wound a finger round wavy lock of Claire Standish's brilliantly-flaming scarlet hair; her neatly-manicured fingertips clutched the fold of his jacket hanging off his broad shoulders.

Allison couldn't help but long to trade places with the Princess - to feel Andrew's soft lips upon hers, to feel the warmth of his embrace…

But no, she was just another nobody he would do nothing but ignore. For one glorious moment on that seemingly-everlasting Saturday, Allison had hoped - no, prayed - that Andrew might have felt something for her other than pity for her parent's lack of interest in her, but the spark she had seen in those crystal-blue eyes of his had extinguished itself before it had even had a chance to truly blossom into something beautiful.

Allison turned away, unable to bear the sight of another pair of lips upon those belonging to the boy she loved. Saliva clotted in her throat and her eyes stung with fresh, burning tears of angst and raging jealousy. Her teeth clenched down upon her tongue to prevent herself from shattering into a million pieces, right there and then on the curb. She drew the fur of her hood more securely around the exposed flesh of her pasty neck before walking over to where her mother's car was parked in the driveway. She took one last look at the entwined lovers (most likely to be elected prom king and queen later on this year) before throwing open the car door and clambering clumsily into the back seat.

Her mother drove in silence and just before they turned the corner, Allison caught a glimpse of John Bender: the school hard-knock she had spent today's detention with. His eyes were misty and glazed over (no longer baring his usual intense, mocking gaze) as he stared into the distance at the pristine girl with the diamond earrings whose fingers were interlinked with those of the school's wrestling captain, the jock, the sporto - and the boy of Allison's dreams.

She felt hot tears meander down her cheeks as she slumped against the plush seat of her mother's car. She knew her mother wouldn't even notice her tears; wouldn't question them, just look straight past Allison as she always did.

Allison knew her parents had never truly wanted her. She was a mistake and that's all she ever would be. Sure, they fed her as a toddler, they raised her, they took care of her, but not out of love, out of mere compulsion.

Andy didn't want her. Her parents didn't want her and she had no friends to want her. Allison's loneliness dawned upon her as she slid out of the car, the dried tear-tracks on her cheeks causing her face to feel awfully stiff. She gnawed her lip, her teeth sinking deep into the flesh until the rust taste of blood danced upon her tongue. As soon as she bolted through the front door of her house, she rushed upstairs to her bedroom - her sanctuary, her sanatarium of tortured thoughts, where she could be free to pour over her longing for the boy with the wrestling tights. She slammed the door behind her so hard that the panes of glass in her window rattled precariously within their frame. She threw her bag beside the bed, tampons, scarves and purses tumbling out of it as it fell (along with the padlock of Bender's locker).

Crawling under the crisp, freshly-made (as of this morning) covers of her bed, enveloping herself in the blissful warmth and comfort it provided, Allison buried her damp face in her pillow, the plush fabric muffling her strangled sobs as they escaped her mouth. She howled wildly, letting all the emotions bottled up insider her core out into the open at last. Her pain, her solitude, her anger…everything. She gasped for air and with a final gulp, the flow of tears stopped. A glance at her reflection in the window told Allison that the thick black eyeliner she wore had dripped down her face, creating the illusion that she was some sort of half-human/half-panda hybrid. She ran a hand through her dark, untameable mane of cropped locks, ignoring the way her tears had defaced her make-up. Who cared? The only person she wanted to care in the slightest was too busy snogging one of the richest, prettiest, most popular girls in the whole school.

That thought made Allison's bottom lip tremble once more, but she would not allow herself to succumb to the tempting clutches of her own pain again. Her eyes were tired and itchy from crying and her throat ached from sobbing so hard. She flopped back on to her pillow, not even bothering to get undressed. Drowsiness clawed at her brain, organs, muscles, limbs; every inch of her felt drained. She drifted into a deep slumber and not wake until late next morning.

When Allison woke, her eyes felt tender and swollen. She could barely open them. She blinked blearily in the sunlight streaming in through the window. Her mind spiralled back to the events of yesterday ; the tears, the laughter, the dancing and the blazing jealousy she felt when she witnessed Andrew and Claire locking lips yesterday afternoon.

She swung her legs out of bed, aware that she was still fully-clothed, and trudged across the room towards the window. She stepped lightly into the glowing warmth of the sun's powerful rays. Squinting through the beam of light, Allison could just make out a tall, lean figure striding down the narrow path of her front lawn. The careless swagger in their step made a name flash in her mind like a light bulb.

Bender.

Her heart gave a sudden jolt and began hammering wildly within her chest. _What was he doing here? _Shouldn't he be gallivanting with his friends or smoking weed in a park right about now? She wondered. Allison dithered by her window before flying downstairs in a sudden explosion of action, almost tripping over her own feet in a flurry of panic as she did so.

Allison flung open the door before Bender had even been given a chance to knock. Her eyes were as wide as those of a frightened rabbit as she looked into the face of Shermer High School's most infamous Bad-Boy.

Bender gazed down at her, his eyes hidden by a pair of thick black sunglasses. A smirk twisted his thin lips. This unnerved Allison slightly. Slowly, Bender pulled off his almost-opaque shades, revealing those intense eyes of his. He ran a gloved hand through his long, already-tousled hair, before peering round the frame of the door which Allison was blocking, frozen solid upon the shaggy doormat.

"So…" He began in his usual care-free tone. "You gonna let me in or am I gonna have to wait around all day for you to move your ass out of the doorway?"

Allison's head bowed forward in an automatic nod. "Uh…sure." She replied slowly, finally finding her voice and stepping aside.

John Bender strode inside the house, his eyes darting round the hallway. "Where are your folks?" He asked quietly.

Allison was still too shocked to answer his question immediately. She couldn't believe _John Bender _was standing on the threshold of her house. The question '_What was he doing here?_' entered her mind once more. "Uh, out somewhere. I don't really know." She blurted quickly. _Nor do I care, _she added silently.

"Good…bedroom?" Bender asked sharply, his gloved hand finding the small of her back and pushing her up the stairs. Allison did not even reply, she was too stunned to do so. The bedroom? A trio of beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. What did he want to do in there? Was this his way of getting back at Claire for being with Andy?

Allison shuffled inside her bedroom, her hands twisting together anxiously. Bender closed the door behind him before swaggering over to the bed and lying across it lazily. Allison took in his appearance as he glanced around her room, absorbing his surroundings. He was wearing his leather, finger-less gloves once more. His feet were clad in a pair of lethal-looking doc martens and a ripped crimson shirt hung off his chest. A thick denim jacket fitted snugly round his shoulders, embroidered with an assortment of badges and pins.

Allison suddenly became angry with Bender for showing up randomly at her house and inviting himself randomly into her home. "Why are you here, Bender?" She snapped more viciously than she had intended.

Bender placed one elbow upon the bed and one hand behind his head, looking at her with smug interest. "I think you know." He said flatly.

Allison remembered the pained look in those eyes when Claire and Andy had kissed yesterday. "Yeah," She said nonchalantly, "we're both jealous. You want Claire and I want Andy." She folded her arms across her chest. "I don't see what we can do about it. They don't want either of us."

Bender's lips curled in a smile. "Actually, there is." He said smoothly.

Allison backed away slowly. "There is no way I am sleeping with you." She said sharply, narrowing her eyes warningly at him.

Bender rolled his eyes in response to her accusation. "No, I don't mean that." He said, shaking his head so that his hair fell into his eyes. "I mean, we need to tear them apart."

Allison shook her head. "We can't do that. There's no way. No." She said, nibbling her lip.

"And why not?" Bender asked, sitting up straight now.

"Because they're obviously happy together. We shouldn't interfere with their relationship. Don't you want Claire to be happy?" Allison replied, her eyes meeting his. Even if she did long to be with Andy, she didn't want to hurt him if he truly loved Claire. And, let's face it, they were the perfect match.

"Not unless she's with me." Bender said blatantly, fingering the button holes of his denim jacket absent-mindedly.

Allison frowned at Bender's selfish attitude towards Claire, her brow furrowing. "I'm not doing this, Bender. You come round here, you don't even know me and you expect me to help you ruin the relationship of two people who clearly enjoy being together." She said through gritted teeth. She wished he would leave.

"But they don't want to be together - that's the point!" Bender said, his hands knotted together in his lap. His gaze was cast down to the plush carpet of her bedroom.

Allison could barely believe what she was hearing. Her eyes narrowed in scepticism at his words, unsure if she had heard him correctly. "W-what?" She stammered in disbelief.

Bender looked at her for a long, hard moment before his head bowed forth in a slow nod.

Allison shook her head, her dark hair flopping in front of her chocolate-brown eyes. "What are you talking about Bender?" She snapped, becoming more and more impatient with him.

Bender got to his feet, an urgency in his eyes she had never seen before. "I'm talking about Claire and Andy! They don't want to be together! They're only together because society wants them to be. You saw the look in her face yesterday when she looked at me. There was something there. I know it." He said, raising his voice as his frustration mounted.

Allison's eyes were wide. She couldn't believe how badly Bender appeared to want Claire. She couldn't imagine him feeling for a girl this badly. It just wasn't in his nature. Then again, she had seen a spark in those auburn eyes of Claire's when they fell upon Bender. A certain longing for the Bad-Boy had been there, she was almost certain of it. "Yeah, well what about Andy?" She retorted sourly. "Claire may have a thing for you, but there's no way in hell that Andy likes me. Why would he?" She asked, throwing her arms out and glancing down at her dull clothes crumpled and creased from having slept in them last night.

Bender's expression softened slightly as he looked at Allison. "Allison, come on." He said, placing a gloved hand on her shoulder. She flinched slightly at his touched. She didn't get touched very often, so she wasn't quite used to it.

"Look, Bender, just forget it. I'm not helping you." She said, a finality in her voice that made Bender's expression harden once more. His forehead creased in anger.

Bender strode past her towards the door, his shoulder knocking hers purposely on the way out. "Fine. Suit your fucking self." He spat. "See you around." And then he was gone.

Allison collapsed onto her bad, Bender's words ringing in her ears. She buried her face in her hands. She wanted to cry, but no tears would escape her lids. She wrapped her arms around herself and allowed herself to become engulfed in her own self-pity. Was Bender right? Did Andy really like her? She highly doubted it. In fact, she was sure Bender had only said it to get her to help him.

Still, a girl can dream.

* * *

Allison clutched the strap of her bag, her knuckles turning a ghostly-white as she stepped through the doors of Shermer High School, terrified that she would run into Andy, Bender or Claire, for that matter. She headed straight towards her first class, giving no one a chance to speak to her if she did happen to run into her (not that they would even bother to make any means of conversation with her).

She sat through each of her classes that morning, her mind so plagued by thoughts of Andrew and Claire that she managed to snap a record number of three pencils in half a day. By lunch, she had completely ran out of writing implements.

Allison arrived in the lunch hall as soon as the bell had rung shrilly through the school, signalling the end of third period. She searched for a free table and was disappointed to see that there were none. She let out an audible sigh, just when her eyes fell upon a table occupied only by a tall yet frail-looking boy who was poring over a physics text book. His bottle-green jumper was loose upon the skinny frame of his torso and his curly ash-blonde hair was pulled back from his face in an unpopular style.

"Brian." Allison muttered under her breath. She made her way over to him and slid into a seat beside him. He looked up from his text book and a wide smile formed on his face.

"A-Allison?" He whispered in disbelief.

Allison gave him a soft smile. "Mind if I sit with you?" She asked, aware that she had joined him uninvited.

"Sure!" Brian replied, snapping his text book shut and shoving it aside. "Wha - I mean wh- why are you here?" He asked, perplexed by her presence.

Allison shrugged. "Well, I guess I remember what you said yesterday, about not ditching me in front of any of your friends…and…" She trailed off, dropping her gaze to her lap, her cheeks flushing scarlet.

"What is it?" Brian asked, trying to catch her eye. "What's wrong Allison?" He asked. Slowly, he moved his own hand over her trembling one.

Allison's mouth fell open. Her head shot up and she looked at Brian, who was looking at her with a soft, pitiful expression. She cleared her throat before confessing herself to Brian. "Andy…and Claire." She managed to choke out. She hoped that's all he needed to work out what was wrong.

Brian's face washed over with a look of understanding. "Oh…I get it. I saw Andy today. He didn't look to happy." He said.

Allison looked at him, her eyes sparkling with confused curiosity. "Why?" She asked.

Brian shrugged, removing his hand from hers and beginning to unpack his lunch. "I'm not sure," He said through a bite of sandwich, his voice muffled. "He was with his jock buddies, but he looked kind of upset about something." His eyes suddenly locked upon a solitary figure moving through the cafeteria. "There he is now. Go and talk to him."

Allison's head snapped so sharply to where Andy was striding past a group of student, that she was sure she had given herself whiplash. She took in the way his thin lips were pursed together in urgency, the way his soft skin almost seemed to glow in the lights in the cafeteria, the crystal-blue of his eyes…her heart skipped a beat as her gaze fell upon him.

"Are you kidding?" She whispered, looking away from Andy quickly. "He'd probably walk straight past me." She said flatly.

Brian sighed. "Fine. But you've got to talk to him one day. He has to know about your feelings." He took another bite of his sandwich before returning to his text book.

The bell rang to signal the end of the school day. Allison was surprised she'd even been able to survive that Monday without suffering from a nervous breakdown. She slouched down the corridor towards the lockers when she caught sight of Andrew and Claire pressed up against a locker, their lips meshing together perfectly, their palms connecting. Students cast furtive glances at them as they passed through the corridor, hurrying quickly out of the school, heading for home. Everything in Allison's world seemed to stop, all she could do was focus on the pair of star-crossed lovers. Her heart burned with envy and her eyes glazed over with a film of moisture. Finally, they broke away and Claire gave him a flirty wave before rushing out of the double-doors. Andrew's smile faded and he leaned his head against the cool metal of his locker, a pained expression on his face.

Allison's feet pulled her automatically towards him as if on autopilot. She couldn't seem to stop them, no matter how hard her brain told them to stop, they would not obey orders. Before she knew it, she was standing only a few yards away from Andrew, her fists clenched together. Her nerves were on end and her heart fluttered in her chest. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come out. Andy turned on his heel, sensing her presence. His eyes lit up as they met hers. The chocolate-brown looking deeply into the crystal-blue.

"Allison." Andrew breathed in stunned delight. "What are you-?" He stopped in his tracks as he saw the expression on her face; helpless tears were rolling down her cheeks and her eyes were full of a pain like no other.

"Do you love her?" Allison uttered under her breath. The crowds of students passing through the double doors had thinned. They were practically alone.

"W-what?" Andrew said, his eyebrows curving towards the bridge of his nose in confusion.

"_Do you love Claire_?" She whispered, looking deeply into his eyes - like windows to his soul.

"I…" Andrew began, his curled fingers digging into the cuffs of his sports jacket. He ran a hand through his dirty-blonde hair in distress. "I don't know…"

Allison shook her head, fresh tears congealing in the corners of her eyes. For a few stretched-out moments, she remained frozen upon the spot, her hands curled into fists of anger and fury. Then, suddenly, she flung herself into Andy's arms, her own arms flying around his neck. Her lips met his in a fiery lip lock that felt so wonderful to Allison, she was sure she had died and gone to heaven. She couldn't have cared less who was watching them - all she knew or cared about was the feel of Andrew Clark's (the school jock, the sporto, the wrestling captain, the boy with the wrestling tights) lips on hers.

And Andrew did not try and break away, in fact, he retaliated to her kiss with such enthusiasm, that he lifted her off her feet. His hands tangled themselves in her dark mess of cropped hair, his eyes squeezed shut at the wonderful, blissful feeling.

Finally, the pair drew apart, both of their lips tingling with the beautiful sensation of the kiss they had just shared. There was a sharp, crisp cough from behind and both spun round. A grin split Allison's face when she saw John Bender - his eyebrows raised in a smug expression, his hand entwined round that of another's. Allison's eyes travelled to the figure beside Bender, her face wreathed in a smile. It was Claire. Allison looked from her to Bender, who gave her a quick wink, before dragging Claire away and out of school.

Allison turned back to Andy, her heart hammering in her chest, pumped by a seemingly-endless flow of euphoric-based adrenaline. A smile formed upon her face as his hand brushed her cheek.. The Athlete didn't want the Princess after all, he wanted the Basket Case.


End file.
